Sometimes I am very slow to understand. Such is the case with Visual Editions (U.K.) Composition No.1 by Marc Saporta. It is a box with loose pages. It is a book that can be read in any order. It is an enigma. It is a game. Yet it went to the bottom of my pile until I read a review in EYE #81. Then like the bolt of light from Olympus (not the Japanese company that’s going belly-up), I got it.
So you’re perhaps asking what’s the big deal. Its just a book that can be read in any configuration. What’s to get?
Well, it is actually a wonderful exercise in the essence of meaning and comprehension. So often novels, essays and short stories read as though they were indeed flung in the air and allowed to fall. This is that concept incarnate. I only wish it were printed on better paper. I like my randomness well printed.